Health Care Reform in Congress on CBS

... moderate voters and swing voters who didn't want too much of a bill. >> reporter: today's trip to savannah, georgia is part of the president's white house to main street tour. it's intended to show that jobs is at the very top of his agenda, but back here in washington, it's health care reform that is still dominating the debate about that harry? >> chip reid at the white house this morning. thank you very much. joining us now is house majority leader steny hoyer. mr. majority leader, good morning. >> good morning. >> thanks for taking the time to be with us. i want to go back to jim bunning for a second. does he have a point, does avenue right to stand there in the well of the senate and say you got to pay for this or do you think he's out of line? >> under the rules, he obviously is in the senate and has the pablgtd to do that, but i might point out that we passed what is on the at some floor by unanimous consent, republicans and democrats agreeing across the board in the house of representatives that we ought to stentd extend this for 30 days while we try to work out the policies. unemployment insurance and cobra is an emergency. under our rule, we can accept bills like this on an emergency basis. but i might also say that senator durbin offered to senator bunning the opportunity to present an amendment to the senate to be voted on. senator bunning said i might lose it. so senator bunning has simply said i don't care what the majority wants to do, i alone am going to stop unemployment insurance and cobra coverage, health care coverage, for americans who need to go forward. frankly that's an example of why it's so difficult to pass legislation through the united states senate. >> let's talk about health care for a second. nancy pelosi says there will be a smaller version of the health care bill that is going to be moving forward. if there is a single best selling point in it, what is it? >> certainly the single best selling point is what i think senator mccain and senator obama both agreed upon in the debate just shortly before the election, and that was we needed to provide access to affordable health care for all americans and all families. that is the single best selling point because if we don't do that, the system is more expensive, less efficient, our nation is less healthy, and all americans who have insurance are paying about $1,000 extra in their policies to accomplish that objective. >> when's interesting, some of your blue dog democrat friends say there's not must have cost containment in it. warren buffett, who sort of likes it in principle said there is not enough cost containment. the republicans say let's go back to square one. is there any chance this moves back a little bit that there's more agreement before this this thing moves forward? >> well, we're working on agreement and as you saw last thursday, the president convened 20 democrats, 20 republicans, house and senate, to discuss it. i thought it was a very civil, positive discussion. and there were great areas of agreement. and i think that -- so the answer to that question is yes. in terms of cost containment, clearly as you mow the congressional budget office says our bills save about $132 billion over the next ten years and $1 trillion over the next 20 years. that's very substantial dollars about sglp very quickly, live by the sword, die by the sword. if you get this passed, are you happy to live with this, this may cost you seats in the end come november. >> when you go to the individual elements in our bill and ask people do you think there ought to be extended coverage, do you think we ought to prevent pre-existing conditions as being a debilitating -- stopping you getting insurance. the public overwhelming answers yes. as a matter of fact, most of the things in our bill, efficiencies, extension of competition, open answer transparent free markets to get your insurance, most people on the ved items say, yes, we're for that we think that's good policy. so the answer is clearly about we pass this bill we're prepared to go to the american public because we believe they support the individual elements in the bill. >> all right, mr. majority leader, hack you very much for your time this morning 37 we do appreciate it. >>> time now for the news. >> erica hill standing by at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning. the post office today planning to announce cuts to your mail delivery. cutting it down to five days a week. all part of a drastic move to cut massive debts. here's michelle gielan. >> reporter: neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night may stop them from completing their appointed rounds -- except on saturdays. >> the amount of mail that we deliver to every address per day is going down. >> reporter: after losing $297 million due to a 9% drop this mail volume in the first quarter of this year, the united states postal service is asking congress to give its stamp of approval to a five day workweek. >> any paper-based communication is being challenged by how they exist and how they provide their service in an internet world. >> reporter: this comes at a time when e-mail and online bill paying is rapidly replacing ...